Pick Your Poison

With your big empty purse,
Every week it gets worse,
At least your breasts cost more than hers
--Fuck Me Pumps, Amy Winehouse

Everybody gets so much information
all day long that they lose their common sense
--Gertrude Stein
_______________

Let us think of things that are more dangerous than terrorism in our lives, things that cross our radar with relatively little attention:

• Medical mistakes: Misdiagnoses, incorrect and incompatible medications, hospital infections, botched surgeries. 100,000 of us die annually as a result of medical malpractice and complications.

• Automobile accidents: Over 42,000 people die annually in road accidents in the U.S. As one study noted, the "equivalent of a plane load or more of people died on the roads" daily (Car Crashes Kill 40,000 Every Year). Motorcycle rider fatalities continued their nine-year increase, reaching 4,810 in 2006, accounting for 11% of total vehicular fatalities (exceeding the number of pedestrian fatalities for the first time since the NHTSA began collecting fatal motor vehicle crash data in 1975.)
  

• Tobacco-related deaths: 443,000 people die in the U.S. annually as a result of primary, secondary and tertiary-related smoking effects (Smoking Deaths Worldwide.)

• Natural disasters: Tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, lightening, infrastructure collapse -- take your pick. How many die? WikiAnswer says, "heaps".

• Suicide: 30,000 to 80,000 -- stats vary, and ascertaining this particular form of death is difficult.

You get the idea.